King of Plain: Toyota Camry (2002)

There’s a little bland car on the road today
It’s the same old thing as yesterday

If Sting were to swap his S-type for a Toyota Camry, that’s how he might describe the Toyota flagship sedan. If so, he would have gotten the idea, but he won’t be entirely correct. For one, the Camry is not a little car any way you measure it. It clocks in at 4765 mm, 235 mm longer than the Altis. It’s also a juggernaut in terms of US sales, Toyota USA churning out 390,000 units in 2001 and every one of them sold. In contrast, Toyota Europe has been able to sell barely a handful throughout all the EU countries. So are the Europeans more discriminating, or do the Americans simply know something they don’t? To find out, we took the latest Camry, the GXE, out for a spin, just a few weeks before the all-new model is set to be released.

This Camry doesn’t look quite like the car that was first released in 1997. It has clear dual-headlamp lenses now and a larger, 3D effect taillight cluster. The changes help make the car look better-proportioned—not too flattened like the original—but it’ll still disappear in a parking lot, and it won’t turn any heads even if Jar Jar Binks is driving it.

The Camry is a long and wide car, immediately apparent from one glance. It makes no effort to disguise its bulk, with a beady nose, long angular profile and chubby trunk lid. Pop open the hood and you’ll see one reason for the length: a lot of empty space. Evidently, this engine bay has been designed to accommodate a V6 engine. The only engine available in the Philippines, the 2.2 liter inline-4, looks like it might have wandered in by mistake. It even does a Leaning Tower impression, as it’s tilted backward to efficiently use already overabundant engine room space.

The trunk is similarly cavernous, with a wide, long and deep load space capable of swallowing three airport luggage pieces with room to spare. You can probably stuff Jabba the Hutt in here. However, he’ll probably conk his head, as the 6-disc changer is mounted in the trunk.

So with large compartments at either end, does that leave the middle box anything short of space? Thankfully not—Toyota has allocated an expansive great amount of room for five people. Let’s begin with the driver’s seat then. Depending on your inclinations, this could be the most or least important in the whole car. James or Mang Pepe will have no reason to complain but if you plan to drive it yourself, you will surely be asking for something more than this. Sure, it’s soft and leather-covered but the seat itself is rather flat all over—no palpable bolstering at the butt or torso areas. The height adjustment raises the front of the seat only, which makes finding the ideal position more difficult. Also, all adjustments are manual only. Nothing wrong with that-we prefer manual adjustments. But if you’re shelling out PHP1.4 million for a car, it had better make you feel more pampered. For a two or three hour stint behind the wheel, the seat will cause no severe complaints. But at four hours or more, you will start daydreaming of a massage as you begin squirming to relieve the growing ache in your gluteus.

The steering wheel is adjustable for tilt, but only at pre-set increments, released by a small lever on the left side of the column. If your favored position happens to be somewhere in between two of the detents, then tough luck for you.

The front passenger has an automatic climate control system to play with, as well as a sliding-panel 2-din stereo system. The stereo head unit contains everything: a cassette player, single-CD player, controls for the 6-disc changer in the trunk, and a digital signal processor—you know the drill: church, disco, stadium, etc etc. With its bright LED display, it can double as a disco light when the sun goes down.

In contrast, the rear passengers are in for a treat. Leg- and headroom are generous, even if you’re 183 cm (6 feet) tall. Each of the three seating positions has its own headrest, with even the middle one adjustable for height, and its own three-point seatbelt.

One area where the Camry shows its age is the design and execution of the dashboard, looking dated even when it first came out. The center controls, like stereo and climate control, reside in a rectangular plastic surround utterly devoid of any aesthetic sense. The blockiness of the center dash also hampers leg room for the front occupants. Everything comes covered in a ghastly gray plastic, clashing with the good-looking wood surrounding the door and dashboard switches. The center-console cupholders seem to have been inherited from the defunct Corona.

One bright spot comes from the “Optitron” instruments, similar to those found in the Lexus LS430 and yes, the Toyota Corolla G variants. These gauges are bright and easy to read and lend a semblance of luxury to the cabin. Leather seats and steering wheel also increase the luxury quotient, but overall, it’s just not convincing.

Fire up the 16-valve inline-4 and you might think that it didn’t start—there’s almost no audible engine noise. It’s silent at idle, and throughout the rev range as well. Even when it pumps out its full 198 Nm of torque, it’s still stealth-fighter silent. Step outside the car, or open the door, and it’s a different story. The engine is grumbling and cranky. Evidently the silence is due to the noise insulation, not to an inherently well-sorted out powerplant. Since you won’t be driving with the door open, that shouldn’t be a problem.

The automatic transmission is as smooth as an Englishman in New York, an excellent partner to the engine. Upshifts are quick and imperceptible, and downshifts are also executed promptly. The gearbox prefers to upshift early, and even with the throttle almost floored, it doesn’t want to stray above 5000 rpm. As the 2.2-liter spins past 5000 rpm, don’t expect any spine-tingling race-car noises, as with the Accord’s VTEC or the Cefiro’s V6. This engine turns gruff and rowdy. Peak power seems tepid at 129 bhp at 5200 rpm, but in practice the engine isn’t lacking.

Expect similar resistance when you ask the sedan to change direction. It does quite well in a straight line, or even if you change lanes gradually. But dial in any rapid change in steering angle, and the Camry hesitates for a split-second, as if asking “Are you sure you want to do this?” The steering is as numbing as a shot of Novocain, but at least it’s precise and well-weighted.

The high dash and low seating position mean that forward visibility is compromised; the nose is all but lost from view. The rear is also long, and unfortunately there are no backup sensors. (Why are sensors standard only on cars that don’t really need it?!) The side mirrors are too small and the field of vision too narrow. Imagine trying to change lanes while looking in a makeup mirror, and you’ll have a pretty good idea.

The brakes do an adequate job of stopping the 1420-kg sedan. The brake pedal is firm, much more so than the Accord’s, with the Cefiro’s middle pedal still slightly better in feel and response. There’s standard ABS but no EBD or Brake Assist.

Given our sampling of the Camry’s strengths and weaknesses, we were at first puzzled about its lack of success in this country. It’s our impression that many of these big sedans are usually driven by chauffeurs, and given the Camry’s silky ride, quiet mechanicals and generous rear seat, we were thinking that the bosses should be specifying this car more than its rivals. Perhaps it’s because the boss does want to drive himself once in a while, and that makes all the difference.

If you drive a Camry all your life, you won’t know what you’re missing, because everything is so pleasantly accomplished. You’ll be floating silently from point to point, with the aircon on automatic and David Benoit wafting from the radio But drive it back to back with an Accord or Cefiro, as we did, and immediately you’ll feel just how much more responsive and rewarding a big sedan can be.

We hope the new Camry, soon to be introduced here, will rectify that situation. While it should retain its comfort and silence, we expect it to be less like vanilla ice cream and more like a strong cup of coffee.

By Jason Ang | Photos By Ulysses Ang and Jason Ang
Originally Published in the June 2002 Issue